Many electronic systems generate audible noise. The noise may be generated from multiple sources. For example, electronic systems generate heat and thus have a mechanism to remove the heat. That mechanism may comprise active cooling through the use of one or more noise-producing fans. Further, storage devices such as hard disk drives produce audible noise from the disk spinning and from the movement of an actuator in the drive. The actuator correctly positions the read/write head(s) in the drive.
In some situations, the audible noise generated by the system may be tolerable, while in other situations, the noise may not be tolerable. For example, a storage device on which movies are stored could be coupled to a television. A user could then select a movie for playing on the television. Such storage devices accordingly may be located in the same room (e.g., living room) as the user's television. The noise produced by the storage device's fans and disk drives may be bothersome to the user.